Indecision? Let another make your design choices

February 16, 2003|By Michael Walsh, Universal Press Syndicate.

Perhaps this sounds familiar: You are confounded by color, perplexed by pattern and so mystified at the prospect of matching anything that you don't even start a decorating project, let alone finish one.

You wouldn't know Art Deco from Art Carney or Duncan Phyfe from Duncan Hines, but you've got a file folder bulging with pages ripped from decorating magazines. Despite good intentions (or wishful thinking), you have lived for years with white walls, undraped windows and the same old furniture. You're so petrified of making mistakes, of not getting it right, that you end up doing nothing at all.

Naturally, you're not happy with the way your rooms look. Worse than being merely unattractive, they are unsatisfying and unfulfilling--physically, visually, emotionally and psychologically.

But just because you have neither the eye nor the inclination for creating designer-caliber rooms--spaces that look comforting and complete--doesn't mean you can't have them. The trick is to make as few decisions as possible.

In your place

One of your first decisions could be letting someone else make all the rest. If you can afford it, that someone can be an interior designer, a professional who will, with your approval, choose colors, patterns, fabrics, furniture and frills required for one room or an entire house.

Hiring a professional to do what you cannot will typically cost 20 to 30 percent more than what you would pay for all the furnishings and materials alone. What you're paying for is expertise--training, talent, taste and time. What you'll get are designer-caliber rooms that are finished in a matter of weeks or months.

Designers come in all price ranges. Some furniture stores offer free designer services to their customers. For peace of mind and for being able, finally, to enjoy the rooms in which you live, getting professional help could be money well spent.

Mix and match

Or you can get free designer expertise from other sources--your local paint and wallpaper store, for example. Many wallcovering manufacturers also offer fabrics in the same colors and patterns, all of which have been coordinated by professional designers and artists.

In effect, the mixing and matching have been done for you. All the guesswork has been taken out of the process. By choosing a single pattern of prematched wallpaper and fabric, and then using them lavishly, you have to make only one decision. The wallpaper takes care of the walls. The identically colored and patterned fabric takes care of the upholstered furniture and the window treatments. Voila. Everything goes together.

There's still room for exerting personal preferences, even when taking the one-pattern approach. But only if you feel like it. You could, for example, use the same pattern for walls and window treatments while sticking to solid colors for sofas and chairs. Or you could use a single pattern for upholstery and walls, but a solid color fabric for the windows. Or you could match the sofa with the draperies and just paint the walls.

But for sheer speed and instant coordination, you can't beat using the same pattern with the same color scheme on almost everything but the floor.

Off the shelf

Another fast-track approach is to buy prematched elements. Martha Stewart and an army of other brand-name designers already have assembled color- and pattern-matched draperies, pillows, runners and rugs, throws, towels, paint, sheets, accessories, lamps, shower curtains and bath mats. If you're decoratively impaired, make it easy on yourself. Buy the designer lines at department and discount stores, and take advantage of someone else's talent.

The risk of going the mass-merchandise route is that your bedroom or bath may have an uncanny resemblance to your neighbor's or your mother-in-law's. It may not accurately reflect your personality or your tastes. Then again, if you were any good at this sort of thing, you would have done it on your own already. Besides, better to have a nest feathered with mass merchandise than not feathered at all.

Finally, don't pick and choose scads of individual ideas from the pages of decorating magazines. If you don't have the time or talent to assemble them all, you'll never have a space that looks finished and fine-tuned.

Instead, pick a room that you find appealing overall and copy it. Use the same color scheme. Buy the same sofa, chairs, coffee table and lamps.

Take the room photo to the paint store, the furniture store and the fabric store. Tell the retailers what you're up to so they can help you find the materials or products you need.

Every month the decorating magazines feature the work of top interior decorators. The recipes for assembling stunning-looking rooms are right there in front of you.